Need help creating my PC (More inside).

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plandr

New Member
I am looking to have a new computer custom built, but I don't want to buy from Alienware (there customer service was horrible the last time I bought from them in 2004 and they badly overcharged). So what sites would be good to buy from in you guys experiences that don't badly overcharge and have good customer service.

I do NOT want to buy another computer again for a while after this one (I bought my last in November 2004 from Alienware for 1400 dollars and it is already outdated, incapable of running Oblivion very well and some of the computers I saw in the store the other day were better in every aspect sans graphics card and for half the price).

So I will spend whatever I need to to make sure that my system is at least better than the PS3/X360 from a gaming performance standpoint, but I don't want to be jipped out of my money and am looking for the best deal. I'm going to buy the computer in May and want to spend around 1800 for it, but I'll go up to 2500 if I'm getting my money's worth and the upgrades are significant.

Soooo... anyone have any good sites to buy from? happy.gif Even though right now I'm only looking to make it to look at price estimates at this particular moment, I'd still like to check now (I need to know if I'm going to need to get an extra job down at campus to cover this. Right now I'll have around 1800 by early May, but I can push that to 2500 with another job if need be).

Here is the rig as it stands using this site: http://www.buyxg.com/system/xion9000.asp?v=d

If you guys know of a better place to buy then by all means point me in the right direction. smile.gif

But can anyone help me take this down a bit from 2900 bucks? I want to go 2500 or lower, but at the same time I want this to be a computer I won't have to throw away 3 years from now. But if any of this is total overkill for anything that looks to come out in the near future I'll lower it.

I didn't buy a monitor since I use S-Video to use my TV as a monitor anyway.

Note:

I couldn't understand why I would need to video cards to I removed the second one. Also, if anything about the way I made the computer will cause it to not run or I overlooked something crucial please let me know. happy.gif

The rig:

Case (One of the cheaper ones, and it looked cool so...):

XION II Mid-Tower Case 350Watt W/ Mod Side-Panel Window

Power Supply:

Thermaltake ToughPower 850 Watt Power Supply - NVIDIA GTX 8800 Certified

CPU:

(Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 X2 6000+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology

Cooling Fan:

Monsoon II Lite CLT-M2LA AMD Active CPU Air Conditioner Cooling System

Motherboard:

(Socket AM2)Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express

Memory: (I must have this, the idea of 4 gigs of RAM is too awesome for me to pass on).

(Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)[+0]More Brand...
Corsair Value Select or Major Brand

Graphics Card:

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB 16X PCI Express Video Card

Physics Processing Unit: None, do I need one?

Harddrive:

750GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (I will take this down a notch if need be, I just don't know what all this means but 750 gigs is a nice HD so...)

USB PORTABLE DRIVE: None, do I need onea?


Optical Drive:

LiteOn LH-20A1H 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology (I got this one but if I don't need it I can get something else less expensive. I have an external DVD burner already and I think this is what that is so...)

Optical Drive 2:

SONY 16X DVD-ROM: (I got this generic CD rom drive since I figure you always need a cdrom drive...)

Sound:

HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO (Got the cheapest one since I use my 42 inch TV screen as a monitor and for sound using my S-Video/audio cord anyway)

Speakers:

120 WATT STEREO SPEAKERS (Ditto for cheap speakers, and this is also why I didn't get a monitor aside from the fact that I have about 5 of them already)

Network:

ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD (I don't know what this is so I left the default)

MODEM:

None, does anyone even use modems anymore?

Soooo... I know most people won't read all that but to anyone who does thanks for any advice you give.
 
I suggest you build your own instead of buying from company's such as alienware and buyXG, you can save money by doing it and also have the parts you want to, no some cheap of an unknown brand.
 
The idea of building my own computer is terrifying, but if you anyone could walk me through what I need and how to go about doing it then I have some friends that might be able to help me, depending on how much cheaper it is to build your own (how much cheaper would it be anyway?)
 
plandr said:
The idea of building my own computer is terrifying, but if you anyone could walk me through what I need and how to go about doing it then I have some friends that might be able to help me, depending on how much cheaper it is to build your own (how much cheaper would it be anyway?)
Click to expand...

How much cheaper? at least 200$ savings but well it'll depend on what you want to put on it :rolleyes: , building them isn't that hard just take some reads of the manuals and some intelligence
 
Well it's the one I made above. 200 bucks off of 2900 isn't really enough for me to forsake getting it professionally done and risk mucking it up on my own, but if there are any sites or people out there that can get it done for cheaper than 2900 I'd be more than happy to give them a look.

Thanks for the advice though man, I just would prefer to not build it myself unless I can save a significant amount of money. ^_^

Hmmm... of this stuff though, can anyone tell me what I NEED to make a good gaming rig? I know I need a case, power supply, processor, motherboard, RAM, graphics card and harddrive. I have a mouse, keyboard and s-video to use my TV as a monitor. But aside from that stuff, what else of all the stuff listed do I need, and is the stuff I selected compatible?

I'm not sure if I need the following things:

1. Cooling Fan:
2. USB PORTABLE DRIVE.
3. Onboard Network Card:
4. Optical Drives (I already have an external burner so...)
5. Second Graphics Card

I'm pretty sure I need the below things though, as well as a mouse/keyboard/monitor which I already have from my old rig:

1. Case: XION II Mid-Tower Case 350Watt W/ Mod Side-Panel Window
2. Power Supply:Thermaltake ToughPower 850 Watt Power Supply - NVIDIA GTX 8800 Certified
3. CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 X2 6000+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
4. Motherboard: (Socket AM2)Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express
5. Memory: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory(Corsair Value Select )
6. Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB 16X PCI Express Video Card
7. Harddrive: 750GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (I will take this down a notch if need be, I just don't know what all this means but 750 gigs is a nice HD so...)
8. Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO (Got the cheapest one since I use my 42 inch TV screen as a monitor and for sound using my S-Video/audio cord anyway)
9. Speakers: 120 WATT STEREO SPEAKERS (Ditto for cheap speakers, and this is also why I didn't get a monitor aside from the fact that I have about 5 of them already)

Note: I want to buy a cpu that will last me a long time, that's why I'm going so high end with my stuff (or at least I think it's high end stuff as it's pretty expensive).
 
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Well i don't mind if you end up deciding to buy it from some site, the only thing i'll tell you is that core 2 duo are better than any AMD processor at the moment and they're easy to overclock
 
umm, the set-up you have(as linked) is incredibly fast, and is currently top of the line... did anyone look at the specs... 8800 (newest chip out there), 2G ram, Dual core processor. common that thing is great!! mabye you just need a format, you prob got spyware and a few viruses.
 
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